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Schiano seeking improvement in week leading to FIU

PISCATAWAY — If Rutgers coach Greg Schiano has an extra bounce in his step, it’s probably because he’s looking forward to the upcoming week of practice.

“”Any coach will tell you that one of your biggest areas of improvement is between Game 1 and Game 2, especially with a young team, because you’re able to show them where we didn’t do the things we planned to do and why that happened,” Schiano said a day after his team disposed of Norfolk State in a game that wasn’t as decisive as the final score indicated. “”Then you go out on the practice field and try to get it corrected. That’s really what we try
to do all year long but hopefully after the first game there’s a better opportunity there.”

There should be plenty for Schiano and his coaching staff to correct, too. While the defense was up to the task of shutting out its Football Championship Subdivision foe, the offense managed just six points through its first eight series before scoring 25 points over the final 23 minutes and making it the kind of rout it was supposed to be.

Quarterback Tom Savage completed just 10 of his 19 passes for 148 yards, but his lone touchdown (a 10-yard pass to Mohamed Sanu) came in the fourth quarter, when Norfolk State players were tiring and the game was well in hand.

“”Tom was racing a little bit,” Schiano said. “”I think this game will help him a ton. He’ll put that tape on and watch it, say what the heck am I doing? Some of the protection, though, he got hit tonight. We have to get that fixed.”

From the tape, Schiano said the offensive line also got “”a little ahead” of itself.

“”We were rushing,” Schiano said. “”It almost looked like guys were a little hesitant to not miss somebody instead of being physical and just knocking someone off the ball. It’s not a very big difference between having enough room to get through and not. At times I didn’t think that we at played physical enough and then other times we did. We had some really physical
line play. Probably to sum it up, it’s inconsistency in our line play.”

Schiano, however, said it’s too early in the season to consider personnel changes on an offensive line that he still considers to be “”a work in progress.”

“”We have some young guys that I think are going to get better and better,” Schiano said. “”You have to give them a chance to correct this and slow ourselves down a little bit.”

Despite posting a gaudy rushing total (268 yards), Schiano wasn’t satisfied with the rushing attack, either, saying it’s “”obvious we need to run the football more efficiently early in the game.”

“”At the end of the day, I don’t worry a ton about the numbers if I felt like we could run when we wanted to and I didn’t feel that way early on,” said Schiano, whose leading rusher, Joe Martinek, rushed for 83 of his 109 yards in the second half. “”Again, a lot of reasons for that — correctable errors — but we have to get them corrected. If we get it corrected we’ll be fine; if we don’t then we’ll struggle running the football.”

Schiano will look to correct those errors this week, as his team prepares for its matchup at Florida International next Saturday.

“”Like I’ve said all along, we’re going to be a much better team in November than we are in September,” Schiano said. “”I hope what we grow here in September is going to be good enough.”

About Keith Sargeant

Keith Sargeant is a graduate of Middlesex County College and Kean University. A Home News Tribune staff writer since August 1997, Keith has been covering Rutgers sports since 2000, serving as the Scarlet Knights' football beat writer since 2006.

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About the Author

Jerry CarinoJerry Carino has covered sports for the Gannett New Jersey newspapers since 1996 and has been on the college basketball beat since 2003. A native of Old Bridge, he also teaches journalism at Kean University.E-mail Jerry

Josh NewmanJosh Newman has worked for the Press since September 2004 and began covering Shore Conference sports full time in September 2006. He is a 2004 graduate of Springfield College with a degree in communications/sports journalism.E-mail Josh

Ryan DunleavyRyan Dunleavy has covered Rutgers athletics for more than a decade, dating back to his days as a student at his alma mater. He became New Jersey Press Media’s Rutgers women’s basketball beat writer in 2009 and Rutgers football beat writer in 2013. Since joining the staff in 2004, the Morris County native also has covered the NFL, MLB, NBA, the Somerset Patriots and high school sports.E-mail Ryan